Stereographic Projection: Complex Analysis

Stereographic projection
Stereographic projection is one way to make a flat map of the earth. Because the earth is spherical, any
map must distort shapes or sizes to some degree.
The stereographic projection, in geometry, is a particular mapping (function) that projects a sphere onto
a plane. The projection is defined on the entire sphere, except at one point — the projection point.
Where it is defined, the mapping is smooth and bijective. It is conformal, meaning that it preserves
angles. It is neither isometric nor area-preserving: that is, it preserves neither distances nor the areas of
figures.
In practice, the projection is carried out by computer or by hand using a special kind of graph paper
called a stereonet or Wulff net.
APPLICATIONS
1) Applications within mathematics
Complex Analysis
Although any stereographic projection misses one point on the sphere (the projection point), the
entire sphere can be mapped using two projections from distinct projection points. In other
words, the sphere can be covered by two stereographic parametrizations (the inverses of the
projections) from the plane. The parametrizations can be chosen to induce the same orientation
on the sphere. Together, they describe the sphere as an oriented surface (or two-dimensional
manifold).
This construction has special significance in complex analysis. The point (X, Y) in the real plane
can be identified with the complex number ζ = X + iY. The stereographic projection from the
north pole onto the equatorial plane is then
Similarly, letting ξ = X − iY be another complex coordinate, the functions

define a stereographic projection from the south pole onto the equatorial plane. The transition
maps between the ζ- and ξ-coordinates are then ζ = 1 / ξ and ξ = 1 / ζ, with ζ approaching 0 as ξ
goes to infinity, and vice versa. This facilitates an elegant and useful notion of infinity for the
complex numbers and indeed an entire theory of meromorphic functions mapping to the
Riemann sphere. The standard metric on the unit sphere agrees with the Fubini-Study metric on
the Riemann sphere.
Visualization of lines and planes
Animation of tilt traverse between 4 of the 8 <111> zones in an fcc crystal. Planes edge-on (banded
lines) intersect at fixed angles.
The set of all lines through the origin in three-dimensional space forms a space called the real
projective plane. This space is difficult to visualize, because it cannot be embedded in three-
dimensional space.
However, one can "almost" visualize it as a disk, as follows. Any line through the origin
intersects the southern hemisphere z ≤ 0 in a point, which can then be stereographically projected
to a point on a disk. Horizontal lines intersect the southern hemisphere in two antipodal points
along the equator, either of which can be projected to the disk; it is understood that antipodal
points on the boundary of the disk represent a single line. (See quotient topology.) So any set of
lines through the origin can be pictured, almost perfectly, as a set of points in a disk.
Other visualization
Stereographic projection is also applied to the visualization of polytopes. In a Schlegel diagram,

an n-dimensional polytope in Rn + 1 is projected onto an n-dimensional sphere, which is then
stereographically projected onto Rn. The reduction from Rn + 1 to Rn can make the polytope easier
to visualize and understand.
Arithmetic geometry
The rational points on a circle correspond, under stereographic projection, to the rational points of the
line.
In elementary arithmetic geometry, stereographic projection from the unit circle provides a
means to describe all primitive Pythagorean triples. Specifically, stereographic projection from
the north pole (0,1) onto the x-axis gives a one-to-one correspondence between the rational
number points (x,y) on the unit circle (with y ≠ 1) and the rational points of the x-axis. If (m/n, 0)
is a rational point on the x-axis, then its inverse stereographic projection can be measured byves
Euclid's formula for a Pythagorean triple.
Weierstrass substitution
The pair of trigonometric functions (sin x, cos x) can be thought of as parametrizing the unit
circle. The stereographic projection gives an alternative parametrization of the unit circle:
Under this reparametrization, the length element dx of the unit circle goes over to
This substitution can sometimes simplify integrals involving trigonometric functions.
2) Applications to other disciplines
Cartography
The fundamental problem of cartography is that no map from the sphere to the plane can accurately
represent both angles (and thus shapes) and areas. In general, area-preserving map projections are
preferred for statistical applications, because they behave well with respect to integration, while angle-
preserving (conformal) map projections are preferred for navigation.
Stereographic projection falls into the second category. When the projection is centered at the
Earth's north or south pole, it has additional desirable properties: It sends meridians to rays
emanating from the origin and parallels to circles centered at the origin.
crystallography
In crystallography, the orientations of crystal axes and faces in three-dimensional space are a central
geometric concern, for example in the interpretation of X-ray and electron diffraction patterns. These
orientations can be visualized as in the section Visualization of lines and planes above. That is, crystal
axes and poles to crystal planes are intersected with the northern hemisphere and then plotted using
stereographic projection. A plot of poles is called a pole figure.
A crystallographic pole figure for the diamond lattice in [111] direction
Geology
Researchers in structural geology are concerned with the orientations of planes and lines for a number
of reasons. The foliation of a rock is a planar feature that often contains a linear feature called lineation.
Similarly, a fault plane is a planar feature that may contain linear features such as slickensides.
Photography
Some fisheye lenses use a stereographic projection to capture a wide angle view. These lenses are
usually preferred to more traditional fisheye lenses, which use an equal-area projection. This is probably
a result of the conformal property of the stereographic: even areas close to the edge retain their shape,
and straight lines are less curved. Unfortunately stereographic fisheye lenses are expensive to
manufacture. Image remapping software, such as Panotools, allows the automatic remapping of photos
from an equal-area fisheye to a stereographic projection.
Slip is an important deformation mechanism, and as such, it is important to understand it. Slip
is typically defined in terms of systems, containing both a slip plane and a slip direction. The use
of a Wulff net allows these to be found easily given the tensile axis, following the procedure
shown here:

Stereographic Projection: Complex Analysis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Stereographic Projection: Complex Analysis

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Stereographic Projection: Complex Analysis

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Stereographic projection

Similarly, letting ξ = X − iY be another complex coordinate, the functions

Visualization of lines and planes

Stereographic projection is also applied to the visualization of polytopes. In a Schlegel diagram,

This substitution can sometimes simplify integrals involving trigonometric functions.

2) Applications to other disciplines

A crystallographic pole figure for the diamond lattice in [111] direction

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.